My Ego Needs a Break/The 'Genius' Who is TED and what is he talking about? Clearly his words rang clear to Elizabeth Gilbert because she really took the stage with some *excellent* prose about my new favorite cognitive construct- the genius. The greater message of Gilbert’s talk resonated well with me. I’ve kind of been in a place where I’ve been struggling to stay motivated, senioritis I guess, and I’ve really been getting myself down for it. This is just an example of the greater conflicts I experience with myself and the world around me. It becomes a vicious cycle of trying to contain everything in my life within my own ego, and then blaming myself when things go wrong. This problem is not one limited only to me clearly, and I think Gilbert’s way of thinking has really begun to recontextualize the way I digest the world around me. The main takeaway was the overload of the ego. Since the Renaissance, the sel...